'Today in Connecticut History'
This excellent series, run by the Office of the Connecticut State Historian and CT Humanities, recently featured several Hartford-related items:
May 26: Alse Young Executed for Witchcraft
On this date in 1647, Alse Young of Windsor became the first person executed for witchcraft in the 13 colonies. She was hanged at the Meeting House Square in Hartford, now the site of the Old State House.
The Hartford Female Seminary, a revolutionary school for girls founded by author and education pioneer Catharine Beecher, held its first classes on this day in 1823.
On this day, Hartford bicycle manufacturer Albert Augustus Pope demonstrated the first mass-produced electric car in American history, the battery-powered Columbia Motor Carriage.
Her name was Katharine Hepburn, and she was born in Hartford on this date in 1907.
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